SMART TALK.

Profiles of 16 who succeeded at home work

"Attitude, determination and vision," said Jeanne Torrence Hauer, author of "Millionaire Women: Success Secrets of 16 Who Made It From Home" (Barrington Publishing, $14.95).

Hauer tracked down women who started businesses that range from designing a line of luggage and handbags to selling educational toys to organizing conventions and special events. They achieved success beyond their wildest dreams. The profiles include Chicagoans Doris Christopher of The Pampered Chef and Margaret Johnsson of The Johnsson Group Inc. Christopher's business sells kitchen products direct to women at "shows" hosted by a consultant. Johnsson's business provides financial consulting to major companies.

Not all of them are millionaires; some were chosen because their businesses hit $1 million in annual sales.

"Women looking for peak achievement launch off on their own because there is no limit to what they can achieve," Hauer said. "They're empowered by not having to work for another person."

More than 60 percent of woman-owned businesses were started from home, Hauer said, because of the 3 C's: comfort, cost and children. Home-based businesses give women the opportunity to combine their entrepreneurial venture with paid employment or child rearing by offering flexibility, cutting down on overhead and allowing for time with their families.

Hauer, of Cleveland, a regional marketing manager of a Fortune 500 company and speaker-consultant, aimed for profiles that include practical information and inspiration.

Asked if there was a common mistake that many made in the beginning, Hauer said it was "not getting counsel in areas of weakness and trying to do it all alone."

She cited Two Men and a Truck, a Michigan-based moving company Mary Ellen Sheets founded in the early 1980s when she was a systems analyst for the state of Michigan and a single mother seeking to provide a stable home for her two sons. She and the boys were the original moving crew. The demand for moving services continued to be high after her sons left for college and in 1985 Sheets decided to keep the company going on her own. She was able to quit her day job in 1989. But when a friend suggested franchising the enterprise later that year, it made all the difference. The company is now the seventh-largest mover in the country and her sons are executives in the company.